Welcome to my Life
by Sazagg
Summary: Percy and Annabeth just got out of Tartarus, and are called into the conference room for a meeting, to discuss what they are going to do next. Leo says something that Percy doesn't like, and Percy has some feelings he would like to share with him. Has Tartarus changed Percy that much? Based off the song Welcome to my Life by: Simple Plan.


Percy walked into the conference room and sat down in the head chair of the rectangular table. Everyone else was already there, Jason, Nico, Piper, Leo, Frank, Hazel, and Annabeth watching him as he sat down. Ever since he and Annabeth had come out of Tartarus, a week ago, everyone had urged him to take to lead of their astonishing quest.

He groaned quietly as he settled himself down. Percy was still badly injured from his time in Tartarus, where he had taken the most of the torture to protect Annabeth, who wasn't as bad as he was, but still recovering. Every time he made a sudden movement, a sharp, shooting pain shot from what felt like every part of his body. He got sympathetic looks from everyone, except Annabeth, who gave him a worried look. She was the only one knew what really happened in Tartarus, rather than the ridiculous story they had told the rest of their companions.

Percy had been stretched to the breaking point, fighting off monster after monster, and having to take care of Annabeth─not that she needed help, of course. However, he and Annabeth both had a broken glass look in their eyes, and they had bruises and scratches and horrible wounds all over their body still. They were extremely underweight, resembling walking skeletons, and everyone looked at them with concern, because they looked like they would collapse any minute. All they wanted to do was get some rest, but that was impossible; they needed to get stuff done, plus, the nightmares would keep them awake anyway.

"Okay, so what have you guys been up to while we were gone? Any plans?" Percy asked in a broken voice. "Let's see, we've been gone for, what? Three weeks?"

"Uh, Percy?" Leo said hesitantly. "We've been occupied trying to get to Greece. It's really hard trying to fight off so many monsters, you have no idea..." Leo realized too late his mistake. Of COURSE Percy knows what we've been through; it's been his whole life, and it's nothing compared to what he went through down in─

Percy interrupted him in the middle of his thoughts. "Excuse me? I have no idea what you've been through? Are you SERIOUS?"

Annabeth shot Leo a freezing look. "Don't say another word, you have no idea what you're causing─"

"Okay, I understand that you guys literally went through hell and all, but it really is hard trying to get through losing the two main leaders of this quest, plus our best friends, not to mention the saviors of the _world_─" Jason was cut off by Percy slowly turning around to give him the scariest glare he had ever seen in his life. Jason could feel the air getting heavier, becoming extremely humid, and everyone started sweating, excluding Percy. They could feel the waves outside starting to get bigger and stronger, for they were on the ocean, instead of in the air.

Percy started half-whispering, "Do you ever feel like breaking down? Do you ever feel out of place? Like somehow you just don't belong, and no one understands you?"

Actually, yes, I'm a demigod, everyone feels that way," Leo was yet again cut off by Percy, whom swung his glare around to him, and kept talking.

"Do you ever wanna run away? Do you lock yourself in your room? With the radio on turned up so loud, that no one hears you screaming?" Leo just about spoke again, but with a half-freaked out and half-shut-your-face-or-Percy-will-do-it-for-you look from Annabeth, he decided against it.

"Well, you don't know what it's like, when nothing feels alright. You don't know what it's like, to be like me." Percy suddenly started shouting. " To be hurt, to feel lost, to be left out in the dark! To be kicked, when you're down, to feel like you've been pushed around. To be on the edge of breaking down, when no one's there to save you! No, you don't know what it' like..." He paused for a moment. "Welcome to my life." he finally spat out.

All the girls were openly crying. "Percy─" Hazel started to say before Percy cut her off again, talking in a normal volume, but with a sharp edge to his words.

"Do you wanna be somebody else? Are you sick of feeling so left out? Are you desperate to find something more, before you're life is over? Are you stuck inside a world you _hate_. Are you sick of everyone around? With the big fake smiles and stupid lies, while deep inside you're _bleeding_? No you don't know what it's like, when nothing feels alright, you don't know what it;s like to be like _me."_

Now you could see Frank's eyes glimmering, trying to hold back tears, and Jason and Nico's faces were so shocked, it was hard to believe that they had any other expression. The ship started rocking back and forth, from the waves outside that Percy's mood churned aggressively. Percy continued, quietly now. "No one ever lied straight to your face, and no one ever stabbed you in the back. You might think I'm happy, but I'm not gonna be okay. You don;t know what it's like, _what it's like," _He started whispering, on the verge of tears. "To be hurt... to feel lost.. to be left out in the dark...to be kicked, when your down. To feel like you've been pushed around..." Suddenly, Percy's face contorted into a furious expression no one had ever seen him wear, and never imagined they ever would. He started screaming once again, "To be on the edge of breaking down, where no one's there to save you." He calmed down slightly. "No , you don't know what it's like..." He laughed quite sarcastically, "Welcome to my life." Percy then laughed again, this time a short, sharp, hard sound that broke Annabeth's heart. "Welcome to my life..." And then, he started walking out of the room, and spoke to himself with a concerning grin, "Welcome to my life."

All of a sudden, the water in the air disappeared, and the waves stopped, along with the swirling wind no one had noticed until it had gone. Annabeth started sobbing, uncontrollably, while Hazel and Piper had silent tears streaming down their cheeks. "You guys have no_ idea_," Annabeth sobbed, "what he went through down there. It changed him."

Jason just looked at Annabeth, and asked, "Percy just shared with us his entire life story with us didn't he?"

Annabeth nodded. "All his doubts, his regrets, everything he's gone through... _no one_, not even the worst criminal _in the world_ should have to go through what he's been through, much less a 16 year old." She sobbed, a short sob that she just couldn't hold in. "It's amazing he hasn't cracked before..."

"C'mon, Annabeth, I'm sure it's not that bad, I mean, we've all been through a lot of tough things─" Leo stopped abruptly when he saw Annabeth's expression.

"Let me ask you a quick question.," She asked icily. "When you were 12, before you even knew gods existed, did you fight off a Fury, on a school field trip, then proceed to kill the minotaur, using it's own horn to kill it? Did you go on a quest right after you got to camp with hardly any training to go get Zeus' lightning bolt back, into the Underworld where hardly anyone has come out of alive? Did you find and kill Medusa when you were 12? Did you fight the war god, and _win _when you were 12_?_ Did you save the world for the first time when you were _12_? Did you find out that the person you thought was your friend, the person you _looked up _to was evil, and tried to kill you when you were 12?

Did you find out you had a Cyclopes for a brother when you were 13? Did you go on a quest into the Sea of Monsters, risking your life, because you left camp without permission to save your best friend's life, and you would never be able to return when you were 13? Did you get turned into a Guinea Pig, let loose bloodthirsty pirates and get away with their sailboat when you were 13? Did you save your best friend from a Cyclopes, not any cyclopes, mind you, but Polymephus himself, get the golden fleece, fight off said Cyclopes, and save the camp, the only place that's safe for demigods, therefore saving the world for the second time when you were 13? Did you save a demigod that had been stuck in a tree for 7 years when you were 13?

Did you lose your other best friend trying to recruit a new demigod when you were 13? Did you risk your life for the second time, again leaving camp without permission to save your other best friend? Did you go across the entire country _again, _fight off a Titan, hold _the weight of the world on your shoulders, _just to save a goddess when you were 13? Did you save the world for the third time when you were 13? Did you find out your fatal flaw was personal loyalty, and that you would sacrifice the world to save your friends when you were 13?

Did you go on a quest through the famous Labyrinth when you were 14? Did you go inside Mt. St. Helen's when you were 14? Did you get attacked by lava, and then only way to save your life was to cause a massive volcano explosion by calling the ocean to you, while you were at the center of that explosion when you were 14? And yeah, remember the first huge Mt. St. Helen's explosion that made practically a whole city evacuate? Yeah, that was Percy. Did you go to Calypso's island and_ come back_ when you were 14? Did you fight a monster that no one could kill, and actually kill it when you were 14?

Did you read the First Great Prophecy telling you that you were the one of the prophecy, and when you turned 16 you would either destroy or save Olympus, but you would die in the end anyway when you were 15? Did you bathe in the River Styx and become invincible on the day you turned 16? Did you lead an army against the Titan's force, that was trying to take over the world on the day you turned 16? Did you fight the minotaur for the second time on the day you turned 16? Did you basically fight off an entire army with just a sword on the day you turned 16? Did you fight a Titan for the second time on the day you turned 16? Did you fight Kronos himself, the third Titan you've fought, and _win_ on the day you turned 16? Did you survive the prophecy that said you were going o die on the day you turned 16? Did you save the world for the fifth time on the day you turned 16? Did you get named the Hero of Olympus on the day you turned 16? Did you get offered immortality and turn it down to be with your friends on the day you turned 16? Did you hear the new Great Prophecy about 7 demigods that would save the world again on the day you turned 16?

Did you only get 3 months of freedom and happiness before you were suddenly taken and switched with a Roman demigod, then sleep for 8 months, before waking up with no memory when you were 16? Did you travel across California, chased by two Gorgons who wouldn't die, find a hippie woman who told you that you could go into the ocean and escape suffering and pain and live down there or go through a mysterious tunnel and suffer terrible pain and loss, carry her across a highway, through a tunnel, into the Roman camp, across the little Tiber, that made you lose your invincibility, by the way, just so he could see his friends again when you were 16? Did you help a hopeless group of demigods win the war games for the first time in forever without your memory, just your instincts, when you were 16? Did you get chosen to go on a quest to Alaska where the gods can't help you, still without your memory, when you were 16? Did you do amazing things on said quest that you can ask Hazel and Frank about when you were 16? Did you literally get tons of new weapons and the lost symbol of the camp when you were 16, falling off a glacier, after fighting off another literal army?, Did you save a camp you have been at for less than a week from an attack that surely would have destroyed them, killing a giant in the process, and become praetor of said camp in a week when you were 16? Did you figure out that you were one of the 7 demigods that would save the world again when you were 16?

Did you finally get your memory back just to go on the most dangerous quest you've ever been on with six other demigods that you didn't know half of them when you were 16? Did you _fall into hell_ just to save your girlfriend, and come out to be told that it was hard to do the things you did when you were 12? Are you the best swordsman in the last three thousand years? Are you the one with the worst luck in the word? Are you the one that just can't catch a break? Don't you _dare_ tell me that you have gone through as much as Percy has, Leo Valdez, because no one has. And I'm sure no one else ever will."


End file.
